The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-26
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
The Missouri Campaign. Under sIsjor-Gen-


have just finished reading Memoirs of the
Men Who Saved the Union, by Dom Piatt."
It is book well calculated to make anyone who
was soldier in the late pause and think.
In many respects 1t does justice where injustice
has been done, and corrects history where his
tory has been unjustly written. AS the years
pass by hope such books will be written until
some time in the coming years s'the truth, the
whole truth. and nothing but the truth" in Iela-
ton to the war of the rebellion will be told.
Justice often comes slow. but always sure.
The whirligig Of time generally makes all things
right and corrects the errors of years. The
true history of the war; its cause and multifa-
rious complications will not, cannot be written
for centuries We must wait until all personal
animosities, individual hatreds and vaulting
ambitions are forever silenced in the grave.
The grave is a great leveler, and over it the I'M
prejudiced historian can arrive at the exact
facts Of the case.
No man who participated prominently in any
great war was ever the proper person to truth
fully write the history of that war. Poor
human nature is too much filled with prejudices
and enmlties to do this. The historian must be
born long after the closes to do justice to
all the prominent actors.
As one who participated somewhat in the ex-
citing scenes which preceded and during the
war, il is marvellous to now. what diver
sity of views are held in relation to many i'm
portant events of those times. Unimportant
acts magEiied to heroic deeds, and events
of thrilling Importance passed with
n mere dash OF the pen Shadows and mist n
shroud much, aud the real. genuine facts of the
case are often hidden from the reader by the in
vocation of partisan feeling, or the eagerness to
f.. 81
], however, write this article only TO comment
On the following sentence, which L copy from
DIR. Piatt's book: Il remember when the
Hutchinsons were driven from the camps of the
Potomac army by the soldiers for singing their
abolition songs, and / remember we'll that for
nearly two years our service soldiers were
engaged IN returning slaves TO their masters,
when the poor creatures sought shelter IN our
lines" That was true in the army of the Poto-
mac, have doubt That army was under
the control, and in the main commanded by Off
GERS educated at West Point. / scarcely
met officer, educated at the public expense,
during all the first years of the war. who was
not pro- slavery. The exception The
institution itself Is founded upon aristocratic
IDEAS and aristocrats generally love slavery in
some form or other. The master, in the person
of the officer. seeks to make a slave of the pri
vate, and delights tyrannize with the power
his position gives him.
While this returning of slaves to their masters
was the common everyday duty of the army ly
ing on the heights around Washington. there was
an army organized in Missouri, composed al
most entirely OF Western men, aud commanded
by Major-general Fremont that never, on any
single occasion, resorted to such inhurnan acts
No slave who sought shelter from his master by
coming into the lines of this army ever
turned to that master. This was the ques-
tion upon which there was hardly any difference
of sentiment in the Army of Missouri. AS far
back az September. 1861, Gen. Fremont mad pro-
claimed that the "slaves OF rebels are free men,"
and on this his army was practically unit
This doctrine being thus publicly announced
In the very beginning of the war, drew to that
army earnest men from many of the States in
the West. The ''border ruffians' of Kansas and
the determined anti-slavery men of Illinois aud
Indiana. rushed to this standard. The most in
tellIgent and the best equipped army then in the
field marched from St Louis to Springfield. I
have served in the Army of the Potomac and
the Army of the Cumberland. and am free to
say that mono were superior to the Army of
Missouri. The soldiers understood the issues
and discussed them around the camp-fires. They
knew them as every intelligent man ought to
have known. and l presume do know now, that
the accursed and iuhuman institution of slavery
was the primal cause OF all the trouble between
the two sections of the country.
was a member of General Fremont's staff,
and long before we left ST. Louis IL was dis
tinctly understood that no slave who came into
our lines asking to be made free man, should
ever be given back to his master. All along the
hurried march from SedalIa to the southern
border of this slave State. of the hundreds of hu-
man chattles who came into our lines. none ever
afterwards slaves. We knew then as
certainly as every intelligent man knows now
that the doctrine OF State rights and the right
of State to secede from the federal compact
was simply the glamour thrown around the
main question, to more sdroitly conceal the fact
that the rebels desired to live in a government
"whose cornerstone was human slavery"
This being the fact, it not the proper
thing to do, even in military point of view. to
strike bold and fearless blow from the very
first. at the exciting cause2 And how cowardly
and how unmiitary it was to act otherwise
Mr.. Lincoln had long before said that this gov
eminent must be all slave or all free, and we in
the Army of Missouri preferred it should be all
free.
Looking back now through period of almost
quarter of century, is it not pertinent at this
time to ask. How much blood and treasure
would have been saved had the Army of the Po-
tomac acted as did the Army of Missour-had
Ill the armies of the Union, from the very first,
utilized the slaves as fast they came into our
lines2 My mathematics hardly compute
the advantages to the federal government such
a course of action would have been
Had the splendid Army of the Potomac been
Dfhcered as was the Army of the West, and
the rebels with all possible means to defeat hem
she war would, in my judgement, have ended in
Two. rather than four years.
What the result personal to General
Fremont account of this proclamation of
freedom, early as the fall of 1862 It drew
him the hostility of the officers of the regu-
lar army-the opposition of the Democratic
.eaders throughout the North, and at last the
ADMINISTRATION itself. Simon Cameron, then
Secretary of War; came West to spy out the field.
He reviewed the army at Sedalia and ex-
pressed himself satisfied. The march after
General Price commenced aud he was
pressed from day TO day until Major Zagonyi's
splendid charge at Springfield drove the rebels
from the State and the army Came to a halt
The history of the war does not record more gall
liant cavalry charge than Major Zagonyfs at
Springfield. Confronted by five times his num-
,bers, he dashed upon their columns with the force
of thunderbolt. and scattered them to the winds.
This action greatly increased the spirits os the
sntire army, and every soldier seemed anxious
10 follow the General down the Mississippi over
Fort Donelson. and into camp within the
porate limits of New Orleans. This could have
been DONE and this would have been done had
Fremont been let alone; and an army of colored
troops would have helped do it.
But on the very day preceding the order to
continue the march a young gentleman from
Washington came to headquarters and handed
General Fremont order from Major-general
Scott, then at the capital. relieving him from
command and ordering him to turn over the army
to General Hunter, of the division COM
manders, and one of the very slowest of them
all The excitemant in the when this